Sat 4/20 @ 10pm
By John Benson
Bravado is rarely in short supply when The Missing – Christopher Marinin (vocals, guitar, organ, piano), Rick Ksiazka (bass, vocals), Elliot Barry (guitar, vocals) and Chad Martin (drums) – is playing a local show. Such bluster is evident as the Cleveland rock act prepares for its 5 Year and 50,000 Beer Anniversary Party taking place Sat 4/20 at Peabody’s DownUnder.
Armed with its latest effort White Gold, the quartet promises plenty of tunes, suds and fun at the soiree celebrating its half-decade together. Sure, five years in a band isn’t really reason for celebration but you’ll have to forgive the group. Nevertheless, Cool Cleveland talked to Marinin about The Missing, this gig and the methodology behind its beer statistics.
Cool Cleveland: Tell us all about The Missing and its apparently impressive five-year run.
Christopher Marinin: We started out as an acoustic folk project and somehow morphed into a party, rock ’n’ roll band trying to represent the city of Cleveland the best we can. It’s a four piece and we’ve had various members throughout the years but we’ve had the same lineup for the past three and a half years.
What’s new musically from The Missing?
Our latest album is White Gold, which we released last August. We’ll be giving a copy away for free at this show. This is our second full length. Our first album was City of Curses. That won best record of 2011 in the Scene. We were pretty happy with that. That was a little bit edgier and about our love-hate relationship with the city of Cleveland; it was pretty angry. Then we won all of these accolades. We got on Warped Tour and started doing some really cool things. With White Gold, it’s kind of a reflection of everyday life’s occurrences. Whether it’s about love, friendship, family, it’s more reflective on the personal self versus the way we viewed our city.
So, stylistically speaking, how has your band evolved from album to album?
City of Curses was definitely more punk, more Nirvana-based music. Just dirty but had some hooks to it. This new record is more along the lines of Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, very catchy. We’re all influenced by At the Drive-In. In fact, there’s a lot of At the Drive-In in this record. And we just wanted to make it more accessible — music anybody could listen to from any background.
What are two of your favorite songs from White Gold?
I’d say “German Shepherd.” It’s very up-tempo, very indie friendly. You can dance to it. And then “Somewhere South of Hell” is a Johnny Cash, Old 97’s country punk. But it’s not rockabilly. It’s pretty aggressive but we have a storytelling vibe to it.
Now let’s talk about this 5 Years and 50,000 Beers Anniversary show. What gives?
We formed in 2008 and we just decided to throw an anniversary show for ourselves. We’re always known for trying to help out our fans and watch their wallets so it’s going to be a free ticket giveaway show. We do our red carpet photo booth. It’s sponsored by Budweiser Black Crown and everyone who comes to this show gets to walk through to a red carpet. They get a high-quality photograph taken that’s going to get posted to the Ghost Laboratories Records Facebook page.
Hmm, 5 years or 50,000 beers. Which has been harder?
I’d say it’s hard being in a band for a month let alone five years. So we needed the beer to help us get through some really tough times.
Quick math regarding the beer intake means we’re talking about roughly 8,000 or so beers a month.
Yeah, we’ve done the math and we at first just thought it was us drinking and consuming the beers but we kind of just factored in everyone else who drinks them with us at the shows and people who enjoy our music at home or in a bar.
Considering the show’s theme, is excessive beer drinking required?
The show will be pretty wild. I think with any Missing show, beer drinking is mandatory. You’ll have to sign a waiver at the door and sign your liver away. It’s going to be a wild night.
Ghost Laboratories Records and Budweiser Black Crown present The Missing 5 Years & 50,000 Beers Anniversary Party at 10 pm Sat 4/20 at Peabody’s DownUnder, 2083 E. 21 St., Cleveland. Call 216-776-9999. Admission ($4 at the door for under 21) is free with a ticket or concert flier. You can request free tickets at bookthemissing@gmail.com.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.